


Richard Brook and his acting skills

by Lethally



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Moriarty Lives Prompt #1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-17
Updated: 2012-05-17
Packaged: 2017-11-05 12:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/406612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lethally/pseuds/Lethally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moriarty Lives Prompt #1:<br/>"Richard Brook during one of his numerous acting job had to fake his death at least once."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Richard Brook and his acting skills

**Author's Note:**

> This is my submission for the first prompt of the Moriarty Lives Community: "Richard Brook during one of his numerous acting job had to fake his death at least once."  
> As a manager my submission cannot enter the contest but hey, this is fun! ^^  
> http://moriarty-lives.tumblr.com/

Richard Brook, during the 6 months he has played as Doctor Stokes in the Emergency Code TV show, has learned lots of ways to fake one’s death.

There was the cardiac arrest in the middle of a massive surgery, very easy to fake as there was no real body on the table—they just had to give a few “electric” shocks, some cardiac compressions, some fake blood here and there, and that was it.

Then there was the patient overdosing/chocking/aneurism/whatever disease that made them have seizures and die. That one was really up to the actor’s talent; no matter what people thought, the actor had to do all the work: the eyes rolling back, the body convulsing. Falling objects had to crash a certain way or they might change the way the scenes must happen.

To complicate things even more, there were the scenes when one had to fake convulsing after actors had pretended to tie them, thus grabbing them, stopping their arms and legs from moving—but the torso still needed to convulse. Most of these scenes were done in one shoot, but it sometimes took many more to get it right. It was incredibly exhausting just to watch it. In his fifth episode he had to be one of the doctors who tied the patient. They had to redo the scene three times and he felt boneless after that. Richard knew that he would never be able to play a scene like that.

Those were the deaths he saw during his time on Emergency Code. His character, however, never had to fake his death in this show; he just left when Dr Alexandra Mallard cheated on him with two other women. Not a very elaborate plot, but then that was what people wanted.

Luckily for him, most of his death scenes were not so complicated. He had died of a bullet both at close range and when he was a shot by a sniper. In another death, an ax had cut him in two (very funny that one—he saw his torso fly one way, while his legs flew another and made one of his comrade fall and die in a pool of blood). And, of course, his most important death, in the role which earned him an award, was his incredible representation of Hamlet.

The Hamlet part was not very complicated: his character was hurt during a mock fight by a poisoned sword. It was fun though; he played it like a drunk scene except that he had to turn pale, shiver and sweat. Draining all color from his face was difficult, but Richard knew how. During one of his first roles, when he had to do the same, one of his co-stars had given him this advice: “imagine your worst fear happening, and then imagine something even worse.”

His worst fear had been losing all his senses except touch, so you couldn’t see, hear, smell anything around you, but you could feel a touch that you could not stop. You did not know where they came from or who touched you; you could only lay there and be at the mercy of anyone. And then worse: drowning, drowning in freezing water, unable to move, feeling the iced water filling your lungs. That’s what Richard thought about when playing his character, Hamlet, dying every night on stage.

Richard knew how to play a wide range of deaths, from the mundane to the strange. He had now engaged in a “Story Teller” career, and one never knew when a talent like that might one day be useful.


End file.
